I am trying to get a better handle on my sketching for strengthening my portfolio. Could anyone give me some suggestions on ways to improve? I have taken traditional drawing classes but am entirely self taught when it comes to using pens and the industrial design product sketching style. So far I've just been watching tutorials. My goal is to build up a certain level of skill so that if I pursue a masters degree I will be at a level with my sketching so that I can stand with my peers in at least one more area. I may possibly start a new thread in this forum to post daily or multiple times a week drawings but I have not decided yet.

PeterC wrote:I am trying to get a better handle on my sketching for strengthening my portfolio. Could anyone give me some suggestions on ways to improve? I have taken traditional drawing classes but am entirely self taught when it comes to using pens and the industrial design product sketching style. So far I've just been watching tutorials. My goal is to build up a certain level of skill so that if I pursue a masters degree I will be at a level with my sketching so that I can stand with my peers in at least one more area. I may possibly start a new thread in this forum to post daily or multiple times a week drawings but I have not decided yet.

Thanks!

Loosen up your work a little, bend the rules a little bit. Try to make your linework clean and confident. Check out Yo's sketch a day thread.

Additionally I've found that its always good to have a few references at hand when sketching. So if I was sketching a car, I would perhaps have a picture of a car and also a couple of sketches of cars that I enjoy from other designers and use them as reference/influence to come up with something of my own..

Now a great way to loosen up is to trace the drawing you have complete - with a focus on speed per overlay - don't worry about precision or getting the lines exact or even making each line the same.

Through imperfection you will find perfection. - i am also a firm believer that before you try to emulate someone else style you need to become comfortable with laying the pen to paper to start the discovery of your style.

I used your sketch as a underlay and the small sketches over top are less then 15 sec's (forced to go quick and not worry about "mistakes") now there should be 30 or so of these...... many time this can be a valuable methodology for me to find form variations..........

OK! I think I finally understand what sketching with underlays is like. I'll give it a shot in my sketching today. I'll probably post it on a new thread since I've started doing a sketch a day. Hopefully this will speed up my workflow some as well. I tried to focus on line weight in these drawings but it does eat up a fair amount of time with how I was doing it. If I can ask cwatkinson for the color version you did of my drawing did you do it all in grey and then change the colors as the last step?

there are so many ways to do this - (mood swings dictate for me) in this one i did a all grey primary colour then did a white layer, then a shadow layer. I didn't like the all grey and envisioned your design with a overmolded handle - so i erased the base grey on the handle and filled it back in with blue. that way you don't really have to redo shadows and highlights (but i did soften them on the blue a little to get a more matt feel)

if you want i can send you the layered tiff file if you provide a email address.